Echo
by the real poison ivy
Summary: Stony'd! I wanted to make this really scary, but it turned out fluffy. This is a songfic, mild stony sadly . The song is Echo by Jason Walker. If anyone has seen the youtube video, then just know that this is the fanfic ver. this is a really great story, and if anything the link for the totally amazing youtube video is inside. please read me!


**Echo**

**A/N:** **Hi! I told you I had Stony coming~! This story is dedicated to The Thief King (one of my favorite people in the world X3) and also tomoyofanel for her amazing youtube video that inspired this story line. This is the youtube video: www. youtube watch?v=eVqZpB_hAnU (no spaces) Enjoy!**

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**_Hello, hello_**

**_Anybody out there? Cause I don't hear a sound_**

Steve Rogers stared out at the silent crowd, obviously deterred by the lack of response.

**_Alone, alone_**

**_I don't really know where the world is but I miss it now_**

Tony was holed up in his lab again. Pepper had been trying for three days to get him to eat something, or even eat, but nothing had bore any fruit. Deciding it was hopeless she left him alone.

**_I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name_**

**_Like a fool at the top of my lungs_**

Tony had always done things to attract attention. Humiliating Justin Hammer in court had only been one of them. No one of course knew the real reason he drew so much attention to himself. They had guessed and guessed, and some had come close, but it was never the complete truth.

**_Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright_**

**_But it's never enough_**

Steve closed his eyes and immediately the memories of being frozen flashed behind his eyelids. His saw faces, birth dates, death dates, gravestones, and killed in action reports. He saw Bucky die, and heard Peggy crying as he was swallowed by ice. On the outside he looked fine, but that was never quite the truth.

**_Cause my echo, echo_**

**_Is the only voice coming back_**

Steve always enjoyed finding something that hadn't changed in New York. Simple things like cracks in the sidewalk, or old buildings and statues. He even saw Captain America figures in an old toy store too. He remembered who he had been at that time, but didn't recognize the person on those trading cards anymore. He was just an echo of someone who had been a model soldier.

**_My shadow, shadow_**

**_Is the only friend that I have_**

When Tony returned from the desert, he was a changed man. The world knew that when he moved away from weapons manufacturing. No one knew that he had changed on an even deeper level. He still played the playboy act, but he never believed it for a second. He knew that if he gave up the act then he would fall apart and everyone would finally see how shattered Tony Stark really was after coming back from confinement. Thankfully, no one ever questioned his drinking. No one questioned why he would glance over his shoulder or stare into an empty space, because no one questioned that Tony had brought back some demons. Of course, what they didn't realize was how truthful it was. With his change of attitude came a change of conscience. A thousand weeping spirits to claw at his ankles, waiting to pull him down into the depths of the abyss.

**_Listen, listen_**

**_I would take a whisper if that's all you had to give_**

**_But it isn't, is it?_**

**_You could come and save and try to take the crazy right out of my head_**

Howard Stark was a brilliant man. No one questioned that. And because of Tony's genius they didn't doubt that he was a good father. And he was. After the fact. Tony had never once been told by he father that he was loved. Never once told that he was a son to be proud of. When Tony was attacked by kidnappers, or stalked by rabid fans or reporters, his father had nothing to say except, 'Damnit Tony you need to be more careful! Now go to your room.' Tony would forever be stuck in a loop of striving for the attention of an absent father. Even when he knew he was never going to get it.

**_I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name_**

**_Like a fool at the top of my lungs_**

Steve felt like he was drowning. The world had changed so much since he was frozen, and at times it seemed that he was dying for something, anything, that reminded him of who he used to be. He felt so lost and alone in this huge, foreign world. But all that he kept seeing was echoes of Captain America. Everything Steve Rogers seemed to have been wiped clean. All that was left was a headstone.

**_Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright_**

**_But it's never enough_**

Every once in a while Tony would wake up in a cold sweat, and still feel the burn of the sun on his back and the sand beneath his feet. He would then go for days without sleeping trying to convince himself it was only a dream and that he wasn't going to wake up with a bag over his head, and attached to a car battery.

**_Cause my echo, echo_**

**_Is the only voice coming back_**

Looking around Tony always saw the echoes of STARK Industries. His father's work, his work, it was everywhere. STARK this and STARK that, he could never escape the promiscuous girls, or the disapproving looks. They followed him, and no one could see that he had changed.

**_My shadow, shadow_**

**_Is the only friend that I have_**

Steve was cursed with sobriety. No matter how much he drank he couldn't get drunk, or buzzed, or anything. Nothing he did could take away the pain and sorrow he carried with him. And in a way, that was comforting. Because it was something that wouldn't change.

**_I don't wanna be down and_**

**_I just wanna feel alive and_**

_**Get to see your face again** _

Staggering across a desert in some middle-eastern country, no living soul within however far you managed to get from the camp, no food, no water, no hope of salvation; that's something that makes you crave familiar faces. Tony Stark discovered this the hard way, and as he stepped down off the aircraft with Rhodey, seeing Pepper's smile made him feel truly rescued. Even hearing Rhodey's stupid one-line satirists, had made him feel better. He knew the moment he laid eyes on someone he knew, that he never wanted to feel that hopeless again.

**_I don't wanna be down and_**

**_I just wanna feel alive and_**

**_Get to see your face again_**

Steve often dreamed about dancing with Peggy. He dreamt that he woke up, and she was hovering by his bedside, instead of the old radio playing the baseball game. He wanted so desperately to see her again. Her, Mr. Stark, anyone. But he didn't even have a picture to remember her by. And that broke his heart.

**_But 'til then_**

**_Just my echo, my shadow_**

**_You're my only friend and I'm_**

The first time Steve and Tony met they immediately took a liking to one another. That was the reason they could fight with each other so wholeheartedly. They held nothing back from the other. As there relationship grew, so did their trust.

**_I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name_**

_**Like a fool at the top of my lung**s_

Sometimes Tony would so something stupid, and get himself hurt, or destroy something, and while he was rebuked for his actions, Steve would just fix him with an understanding stare, laughing the tiniest bit because he knew exactly why Tony had done it.

**_Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright_**

**_But it's never enough_**

Whenever Steve had a nightmare Tony would wake him up and start a fight, laughing and grinning, to take the Captain's mind off it. Steve would play along, and seeing Tony laugh and jest would help him move on from the nightmare.

**_Cause my echo, echo_**

**_Oh my shadow, shadow_**

As the relationship advanced, Steve opened up to Tony about his past. Tony was amazed to hear about his father (and the tights) but he was most interested in the methods in which Steve was 'enhanced.' In turn, Tony slowly opened up to Steve about the camp, and Yinsen, and the platinum cores which had almost killed him. Steve was definitely worried about Tony now, but he was overjoyed that Tony had opened up to him.

**_Hello, hello_**

**_Anybody out there?_**

Alone in STARK Tower, Tony wormed his way closer to Steve's side on the couch. It wasn't at all because the movie was scary, but more because he missed snuggling with Steve. Steve raised an eyebrow at this, but brought his arm around Tony's shoulders and pulled him flush against his side. They stayed in this manner until after the credits had rolled, unmoving until they were both peacefully asleep.

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A/N: once again, crap ending, but hey, whatcha gonna do 'bout it, eh? If I got something wrong, please tell me I will fix it. I have decided that this is a birthday fic for The Thief King, so Happy Birthday! Now i don't have to get you a real present! nah i'm kidding. luv ya! peace out!


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